Acolyte and Senior Altar Servers

What is an acolyte?

“A ministry to which a person is specially appointed by the Church to assist the deacon and to minister to the priest. His duty is to attend to the service of the altar and to assist as needed in the celebration of the Mass. He may also distribute Holy Communion as an auxiliary minister at the Eucharistic liturgy and to the sick. An acolyte may be entrusted with publicly exposing the Blessed Sacrament for adoration. The ministry of acolyte is reserved to men and conferred by the bishop of the diocese.”

CatholicReference.net

(Etym. Greek akolouthos, attendant follower.)

What do we do?

An acolyte is called to serve. We assist and attend to our priests in the celebration of the Holy Mass every Sunday. In a practical sense we are there to help coordinate the altar servers and other ministries who take part in our celebration. We prepare the altar during mass for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. There is also a spirituality involved in our ministry too. We are blessed to be able to take part so closely in the celebration of the Eucharist. As we serve our priests and parishioners our actions are to show reverence and worship to Our Lord through the celebration of Holy Mass.

Interested?

To become an Acolyte or Senior Altar Server, there is training and instruction which you must attend through the Archdiocese and the parish. Primarily, parish priest must meet with the candidate and assess whether becoming an Acolyte is the right ministry for him.

If you are interested in our ministry, please contact the Parish Office and arrange a time to meet with our Parish Priest or contact Chris Lambert via Parish Office 08 9276 8500 ijparish@carmelite.com